Chapter 116
Ralph looked at Ludwig’s face in front of him. Though slightly shadowed, perhaps recalling the same period Ralph had remembered, it was still incomparably brighter than back then. It was a face he thought he might never see again.
How terrifying it is to lose someone precious forever. And how fortunate it is to have avoided such a fate.
Ralph said to Ludwig, “I’m so glad we found a cure.”
Blinking his eyes, reminiscing about the not-so-distant past, Ludwig smiled and replied, “Yes. Indeed, we are.”
“It would be nice to always stay together with the person you cherish, without parting.”
“That’s right. It would be wonderful.”
Smiling as he responded to Ralph’s words, Ludwig suddenly asked, “Aren’t you upset?”
It was an abrupt question, but Ralph immediately understood what Ludwig meant. Even while discussing other things, thoughts about it had continued to occupy a corner of Ralph’s mind. Ludwig was asking about the precious person Ralph had just seen off, and who had since been constantly on his mind.
Ralph realized that this question was the reason Ludwig, who rarely left Edeline’s side, had come all the way here.
‘It’s a feeling I’ve only recently discovered, but did everyone around me already know?’
Come to think of it, even his aide seemed to have noticed… Of course, Ruan himself seemed completely oblivious.
In any case, knowing Ralph’s feelings meant also knowing that the object of Ralph’s unrequited love had recently received the most talked-about marriage proposal in the capital.
Blinking his eyes slowly, Ralph reflected on his emotions.
“Well… I was upset.”
It would be a lie to say he wasn’t sad.
Ralph had always thought that liking someone was purely a joyful thing. Although not everyone was like this, when Ralph showed goodwill, most people returned it, and that made Ralph happy. So Ralph unreservedly enjoyed meeting people.
But now he knew. There were emotions that couldn’t be satisfied by simply exchanging goodwill. One could be sad even after receiving kindness if it didn’t have the weight and warmth one desired.
It was an incredibly sorrowful thing, despite liking someone.
Regardless of how much he loved him, Ruan would never let him past a certain point. And he would have to circle around that boundary like a dog tethered by a leash too short to enter that inner circle.
This realization he had made recently became like an icy river occupying a part of his heart, continuously flowing, so cold that just dipping one’s toes in would cause a startling shock. The endlessly flowing emotion inside him was so cold that Ralph could only curl up in response.
“I was so upset that I couldn’t think of doing anything. I was just listlessly dejected, and then…”
That’s when Ruan came to visit. Ralph recalled Ruan’s appearance when he opened the door, surprised by the sudden visit.
“But when I saw his face, having come to meet me out of concern…”
Originally, Ruan Daen had a kind expression when he smiled, but there was always a layer of fatigue and faint melancholy beneath. However, the Ruan he saw that day had a face full of vitality and softness, even as he wore a slightly awkward expression.
Ralph recognized that face well. It was the face of a truly happy person. An expression that forms when one is so densely filled with happiness that it keeps spilling out.
Until just before, he had been so sad and heartbroken, but upon seeing Ruan like that…
“I just felt good. So good that I couldn’t think of anything else. I realized it was inevitable.”
It was also a bit disheartening. After all, this was someone he liked so much that just seeing them made his heart overflow with happiness, but now that person was leaving. The thought of not being able to see him at all made his tail droop, wondering what he would do.
“But then he told me that he would miss me too. That he would miss me so much that even seeing something yellow would remind him of me. After hearing that… I realized that even if I couldn’t become his most special person, at least we wouldn’t become people who could never see each other again.”
There was a world of difference between never being able to see someone again and having the certainty of being able to see them whenever you want.
“After all, I can go and meet him whenever I miss him, right? I might be a little sad during the times we can’t meet, but I know that even at this moment, he’s happily living his life there. And in the midst of that, he’ll miss me… and when I go to meet him, he’ll welcome me gladly.”
Ralph smiled at Ludwig, who was looking at him with blinking dark eyes, and said,
“I thought that was enough.”
Because with that, Ralph could be happy in his own way.
Looking at his son with glistening eyes, Ludwig finally let out a groan and reached out to ruffle Ralph’s hair vigorously. As Ralph’s head shook from side to side under the rough, intense petting filled with comfort, he suddenly spoke up.
“So, Father. Now that you can move around like this, would you like to take on some other work so that I can expand our business in Reinke?”
At those words, Ludwig’s hand, which had been planning to go home and show affection to Edeline, suddenly stopped.
* * *
While Ludwig was torn between his heartbroken son and the warm lap of his wife…
“Ugh!”
“Oooh…”
“Guh…”
Ruan, sprawled like a sack on the carriage seat, was suffering every time the carriage shook. Sitting opposite him, the Grand Duke watched with a stern and solemn face as his lover emitted not-at-all erotic groans, and then spoke.
“You really need training.”
At this unexpected remark, Ruan, unable to turn his head fully, only moved his eyeballs to look at the Grand Duke and asked,
“Training… what do you mean?”
Seeing the cat’s expression that seemed to question what this was all about, the Grand Duke answered,
“Humans may be lacking in various aspects, but they’re not originally creatures that fall ill just from mating, are they?”
Creatures that fall ill just from mating? Ruan had something to say about this.
“That’s because not all humans have relations with partners who have Your Grace’s insane stamina. Just yesterday, when I asked you to take it easy, you said you’d do it one more time, really just one more time, but in the end…”
As Ruan was thinking about who could have taught this cat to lie, considering he had thought the cat was naive and easily spilled secrets, the Grand Duke, looking at Ruan, said in a calm voice,
“Actually, that was me imitating what you do when you trim your nails.”
“…”
Ruan learned the lesson that he should be careful with his actions in front of a cat who doesn’t know when and what to adopt as his own behavioral pattern.
Meanwhile, the Grand Duke continued,
“And isn’t it true that you’re particularly weak even among humans? Still, with some training, you might improve a little. Although it would be difficult to train you like other humans.”
“What do you mean by other humans?”
“I mean the knights I train.”
At that moment, Ruan realized why the Grand Duke constantly said Ruan was weak.
The ‘humans’ the Grand Duke usually sees and experiences are almost all knights. As a result, it seemed that in the Grand Duke’s mind, the baseline for an average ‘human’ was based on knights.
Ruan suddenly remembered a large dog his friend had when he was Kim Ha-jin. The dog’s family all loved exercise, so the dog thought humans were creatures that could run alongside it at full speed. When Kim Ha-jin, who happened to go on a walk with them, was dragged along half-dead and gasping for breath after just a bit of running, the dog didn’t know what to do, thinking something terrible had happened.
If it was that hard with a dog whose standard was just exercise-loving people, PT with the Grand Duke, whose standard was fantasy world knights, was unimaginably terrifying even without trying.
“I’ll take care of it myself. I can’t let Your Grace, who is so busy, worry about such things.”
Despite Ruan’s firm refusal, the Grand Duke didn’t back down.
“Aren’t you my mate? Do I look like a male who can’t take care of his own mate?”
No, it’s because it’s obvious you’ll go beyond care to overwork me. As someone who had experienced something akin to PT, if not actual PT with the Grand Duke, this was an offer Ruan absolutely couldn’t accept.
“It would have been good if I had started when we first became mates.”
“Even then, it would only be a difference of a few days. More importantly, I’d rather just…”
What stopped Ruan, who was desperately trying to refuse the Grand Duke’s offer, was the next words that came out of the Grand Duke’s mouth.
“A few days? It’s been two seasons since you and I became mates, hasn’t it?”
…What?
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
